“We teach people in the U.S., ‘As long as you try hard, it’s OK.’ It’s not OK to fail if you try hard. If I have people who are willing to try hard, I want them to succeed,” says Sweatt, who is accompanied by elite powerlifter Laura Phelps-Sweatt.

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Bill Starr explains why all lifters should do deadlifts. Then he explains how you should do them.

It seems that there are two distinct schools of thought when it comes to deadlifts. On one hand, there are those who believe that the lift is a necessary part of the process of getting stronger, while another group of coaches and athletes shun them altogether, stating that the slow movement does not carry over to… Continue Reading

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If a program for beginners is fundamentally sound and they get in their workouts consistently and put lots of effort into them, they will make progress.

The very best program for beginners is one that gives equal attention to the three major muscle groups: shoulder girdle, back, and hips and legs. Gains come quickly and steadily, and if the athletes are… Continue Reading

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It’s impossible not to have bar deceleration if you don’t have “accommodating resistance,” says Shane Sweatt of Westside Barbell.

“If you have bar deceleration, you’re teaching yourself to slow down. In sports, that is not optimal,” he says.

As you move a barbell, it’s natural to reduce your effort as you get to positions of mechanical advantage; e.g., the top of a bench-press rep. Enter accommodating resistance that incorporates the use of bands or chains on the… Continue Reading

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Bill Starr says a logbook and a calculator can help you avoid strength plateaus and keep your numbers marching upward.

When my strength gains hit the wall, my first thought was that I was doing too much, so I cut back on the number of exercises I was doing in a workout. That made matters worse, so I reversed the procedure and added in yet more work. That didn’t work either.

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Lifting heavy is only one part of the Westside Barbell Method. Another important part is lifting fast. Shane Sweatt and elite powerlifter Laura Phelps-Sweatt explain.

Dynamic-effort days find powerlifters racking up a certain amount of volume by moving percentages of their max very quickly in small sets, usually with additional resistance added to the bar in the form of bands and/or chains.

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.